September 11: Terrorist attack or inside job?

by Brianna Bush - Lifestyles Editor

Tue, May 7th 2019 10:00 pm

dent in history The attacks on September 11, 2001 killed over 1,000 people and the devastation changed the country forever. However, many believe that Al-Qaeda was not responsible for the attack, but a force inside the U.S. government.

Following the tragedy of the fall of the Twin Towers on September 11, 2001, many people have come up with alternative theories for what might have happened that day. Horrifying videos show planes crashing through the towers, but many people have discussed and constructed conclusions that do not fit what we have been shown in the media.

Out of the onlookers who watched the towers fall, some thought to themselves “it wasn’t the planes.”

“Is it just me or did anyone else recognize that it wasn’t the airplane impacts that blew up the World Trade Centre?” internet user David Rostcheck wrote.

This spiked an array of questions regarding the way the buildings fell. There is no doubt the planes did hit the towers, but the way the towers imploded from the bottom causes many to believe there was something else going on behind the scenes.

One of the bigger conspiracy theories circulating is, “Bush did 9/11.” This theory revolves around former President George W. Bush and how he was behind the fall of the Twin Towers. According to bbc.com, the theory surfaced 16 years after the planes hit the towers, and has caused many to speculate the truth.

It is believed that the physical fall of the towers was an inside job, and with the way the planes hit, the buildings should not have fallen in the way they did.

There are theories that there were bombs planted inside the buildings, in places only people with high access could reach, thus creating the conspiracy that “Bush did 9/11.”

There are facts, videos, pictures and first-person encounters that can prove this theory, one being how Bush was coincidentally in a classroom in Florida that day. After the towers were hit, photos of Bush circulated showed him getting the call that the towers had fallen. Some say his face showed no emotion, like it was posed. People speculated that he had the photographer ready because he knew what was going to happen.

Looking at the information presented about the attack, the plane hit the first tower at the 94th floor through the 98th floor and the second tower was hit at the 78th floor through the 84th floor. It is believed that the impact of the planes had nothing to do with the damage that was felt 80-floors down.

The structure of both the towers were built to withstand blasts in the upper levels and still stand at the bottom. But the government has denied those claims and has said that the plane’s fuel heated the steel structure of the building, causing it to collapse.

Some speculate the government had placed concussion bombs at the bases of the structure. Onlookers and those trying to escape the towers recalled hearing explosions. Those explosion sounds were allegedly caused by the bombs in the building.

To prove the bomb theory, scientists calculated the amount of fuel it would take to melt the steel barings and the fuel in the planes was not enough, therefore the only way the towers fell the way they did was through the use of bombs.

Another conspiracy is the Air Force was told to stand down and that they had knowledge of the planes being hijacked. It is known that in the event of a plane being hijacked, North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD) will send fighter jets out to either debilitate or shoot down the aircraft. This can also be tied into the first conspiracy. As Commander-in-Chief, Bush would have been the one to make the final decision regarding any Air Force interference.

Another common conspiracy involves the Pentagon. The attack on the Pentagon does not hold up scientifically, as the holes in the building do not size up to that of a commercial passenger plane. One, planes are made out of aluminum and they would be unable to penetrate a steel structure of both the towers or the Pentagon and two, why wasn’t the plane shot down? Now this is not necessarily scientific, but it is something to think about. If it is the Department of Defense for the United States, why wasn’t it defended?

Another bizarre conspiracy revolves around the fact that the World Trade Centre Building 7 (WTC 7) had collapsed on its own without being hit by a plane, falling in a similar manner to the Twin Towers. It is also believed that there were bombs in that building as well, and WTC 7 was meant to be hit by a plane.

According to bbc.com, the phrase “pull it” was used by Larry Silverstein, the developer of the World Trade Center, in a TV interview, but he was using it to refer to the fire fighters, to pull them back. The phrase “pull it,” however is speculated to be in reference to pulling the building down.

The final conspiracy includes the fourth plane that was crashed in an open field in Pennsylvania. Some believe Flight 93 was shot down by a missile, as opposed to the passengers taking it down. These people cite the amount of wreckage in the field, believing that the plane must have been blown apart due to the considerable damage.

It can be argued that the plane was shot down because the passengers were able to gain some kind of control of the situation, but not entirely. This led to the government having to make the choice to shoot down the plane to maintain their “plan.”

This is and will forever be a tragedy, and none of that will ever change. 18 years after the attack, the entire story may never be known — but the people we lost on September 11 will always be remembered.